Post

Reserve Conference Rooms with Microsoft Room Finder

How to reserve conference rooms using Room Finder across Outlook, Teams, Web, and Mobile — plus configuration steps for administrators.

Posted Updated
By Trever Ehrfurth
3 min read
Reserve Conference Rooms with Microsoft Room Finder

Overview

A guide for end users and administrators at STRSI.

Room Finder simplifies the process of locating and reserving meeting rooms across all STRSI offices. This documentation includes:

  1. End‑User Guide – How to book rooms in Outlook Desktop, Outlook Web, Teams, and Mobile
  2. Admin Guide – How rooms are created, configured, and maintained

1. End‑User Guide

Room Finder helps you quickly:

  • Browse available rooms
  • Filter by location, capacity, or equipment
  • Add rooms directly to your meeting invite
  • See real‑time availability
  • Book inside Outlook Desktop, Outlook Web, Outlook Mobile, and Microsoft Teams

Booking in Teams (NEW)

Microsoft Teams now includes full Room Finder integration, allowing you to schedule meetings and reserve rooms without opening Outlook.

Create a Meeting

  1. Open Teams
  2. Go to Calendar
  3. Select New Meeting

Open Room Finder

On the right‑hand panel, Room Finder appears automatically.

You can filter by:

  • Building / Office location
  • Capacity
  • Floor
  • Features (Teams device, display, whiteboard, etc.)

Select a Room

As shown in your screenshot, Teams displays:

  • Room availability
  • Capacity
  • Location
  • Building assignment

Click a room to add it to your meeting.

Send the Meeting

Teams stores the reservation in Exchange Online like any Outlook booking.

Teams + Room Finder is the easiest way for mobile and desktop users to book rooms during collaboration workflows.

Booking in Outlook Desktop

Open a New Meeting

  1. Open Outlook
  2. Go to Calendar
  3. Select New Meeting

Open Room Finder

Click Room Finder in the meeting ribbon.

Choose Your Location and Filters

Filter rooms by:

  • Capacity
  • Floor
  • Features

Add Room to Meeting

Select the room and send the invite.

Booking in Outlook Web (OWA)

  1. Go to Outlook Web
  2. Open Calendar
  3. Create a New Event
  4. Select Search for a room
  5. Choose your office location list
  6. Pick an available room
  7. Send the meeting

Booking on Outlook Mobile

  1. Open Outlook Mobile → Calendar
  2. Create new event
  3. Tap Add a room
  4. Choose rooms by building/availability
  5. Save

Mobile does not support advanced filtering like desktop or Teams.

Tips for Scheduling

  • Rooms auto‑decline overlapping reservations
  • Cancel bookings you no longer need
  • Select correct office/building for accurate filtering
  • Turn on the Teams meeting toggle if the room supports Teams devices

2. Administrator Guide

This section outlines how STRSI configures rooms, metadata, capacity, and automation.
Reference automation script: RoomFinder.ps1.

How Room Mailboxes Work

Room mailboxes include:

  • Display name
  • Capacity
  • Floor & location information
  • Equipment tags
  • Calendar auto‑processing rules
  • Room List assignment for Room Finder

Creating a Room Mailbox

1

New-Mailbox -Room "HQ-ConfRoom-201" -DisplayName "HQ Conference Room 201"

Add metadata:

1
2
3
4
5

Set-Place -Identity "HQ-ConfRoom-201" `
  -Capacity 10 `
  -City "HQ" `
  -Floor 2 `
  -Tags "Teams,Display,Whiteboard"

Room Lists (Required for Room Finder)

1
2

New-DistributionGroup -Name "HQ Room List" -RoomList
Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "HQ Room List" -Member "HQ-ConfRoom-201"

Booking Policies

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "HQ-ConfRoom-201" `
  -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept `
  -AllowRecurringMeetings $true `
  -BookingWindowInDays 365 `
  -EnforceCapacity $true `
  -AddAdditionalResponse $true `
  -AdditionalResponse "This room contains a Teams display and whiteboard."

Automation (Bulk Updates)

STRSI uses RoomFinder.ps1 to update:

  • Metadata
  • Capacity
  • Tags
  • Room List membership
  • Building/geo info

See script reference. fileciteturn0file1

Troubleshooting for Admins

Rooms not appearing

  • Verify membership in a Room List
  • Check Set-Place metadata
  • Confirm mailbox type is Room

Auto‑processing failures

  • Review calendar processing settings
  • Remove conflicting delegates

Incorrect filters in Room Finder

  • Missing capacity or tags
  • Incorrect building/city metadata
  • Room not added to the proper Room List

Summary

Room Finder now works seamlessly across:

  • Teams
  • Outlook Desktop
  • Outlook Web
  • Outlook Mobile

This update ensures end users can book rooms from anywhere.
Admins can manage consistent metadata and booking policies using PowerShell and internal automation.

For new room deployments or modifications, contact IT.

Microsoft, Features
conference rooms m365 booking
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.